1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to surgical instruments. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to surgical instruments having sealing and cutting capabilities.
2. Description of Related Art
During a typical surgical procedure, for example, an open or endoscopic electrosurgical procedure, a clinician may, in certain circumstances, have to remove an electrosurgical instrument from an operative site, substitute a new instrument, and accurately sever a vessel, which was previously electrosurgically treated. As can be appreciated, this additional step may be both time consuming (particularly when treating multiple operative sites) and may contribute to imprecise separation of the tissue due to the misalignment or misplacement of the severing instrument along the previously electrosurgically treated tissue.
Many surgical instruments have been designed which incorporate a knife blade or blade member that effectively severs the tissue after an electrosurgical procedure has been performed. For example, commonly-owned U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,083,618 and 7,101,371 describe one such electrosurgical instrument that effectively seals and cuts tissue along the formed tissue seal. Other instruments include blade members or shearing members which simply cut tissue in a mechanical and/or electromechanical manner and are relatively ineffective for electrosurgical procedures.
In some instances, during a cutting procedure, the knife blade tends to dislodge from the knife channel or intended knife path (e.g., bow upwards) during actuation, which may cause the knife blade to lock up and inefficiently cut tissue. In other instances, during a cutting stroke, the knife blade member may frictionally drag alongside the knife channel, giving a user a false sense that a cut was successfully performed.